Let it Burn
by SavannahBanana94
Summary: There are only so many fires one man can live through. There is only one thing Dean can't understand… why didn't Sam try to escape? NOT a deathfic! Give it a chance please! Review! Spoilers for Season 7!


**Set after Repo Man. No real spoilers for that specific episode, but definitely spoilers for season 7. I'm personally kind of proud of this fic… Please review! I mean it! It would make my day, no kidding. I have written a few storys before, but this is the first thing I've written in a long time. I'd love to know if I'm rusty or not. Lol. Well.. enjoy I suppose!**

**Warnings: Cursing. Cuz thats how Dean rolls :)**

**Disclaimer: I. DO. NOT. OWN. SUPERNATURAL.**

**Summery: There are only so many fires one man can live through. There is only one thing Dean can't understand… why didn't Sam try to escape? NOT a deathfic! Give it a chance please! Review! Spoilers for Season 7!**

There are only so many fires one man can live through.

After the fire when Sam was a child, Dean had been terrified. He was only a child himself, although he had understood the second he left that house that he had lost his mother. He had also realized how close he had came to losing his little brother too, and that Sammy was going to grow up without a mother. Dean didn't like this idea. Who was going to take care of Sammy now, like mom had when _he_ was a baby? At that very moment, Dean decided he would let that responsibility fall to him. So while the flames burned on, Dean got to a safe distance, and found a tree to lean against, with Sam in his arms. Sam was crying, clearly terrified. Dean looked down at his baby brother, squeezed him a little closer to his body, and while looking into Sammy's tear-filled green eyes, made him a promise. They would get through this. Big Brother would never let another fire hurt him again.

Sam stopped crying.

22 years later, Dean broke his promise. He knew that as he dragged his brother out of a burning building for the second time in his life. Sammy kicked, and screamed, begging Dean to either let him save Jessica, or just let him die. Each word was another stab to Dean's heart, another reminder that he did not keep his promise. After the immediate danger was over, and the smoke had cleared, Sam had seemed to be handling it pretty well. He had left with Dean, thank god, and they had been driving down some old country road leading out of California for about an hour now. At the two hour mark, that was when Sam broke. He screamed, and sobbed, and groaned in an anguish unlike anything Dean had heard since their father lost their mother. Dean simply pulled the car to the side of the abandoned road and held his brother while he cried. After about an hour of continuous sobbing, Dean squeezed his little brothers body, pulled back, looked into Sam's eyes, and made him a promise. They would find the thing that did this to him, they would fight through it together, and no fire would ever touch him ever again.

Sam stopped crying.

And now, even more years have passed and Dean is at a loss.

He was gone for a _half a fucking hour_, and he comes back to the motel to this. The fire had almost completely engulfed the entire motel by now. Guests and workers were all huddled back in the distance, shivering in the night air, waiting for some form of help to arrive. There was only one problem. There was no giant mop of brown hair poking out over the top everyone else's.

Dean didn't even think twice. He took off into a dead sprint toward the motel, ignoring people's cries of protest. They didn't understand. It wasn't their baby brother in that motel. It wasn't their _best friend_ in that motel.

Dean could feel the heat radiating from inside the motel doors before he even opened it. Smoke blinded him, and the fumes almost knocked him off of his feet, but he pressed on anyway, desprite to find his brother.

To many onlookers, Dean seemed fearless. Dean was far from fearless. He was terrified. Terrified that he would walk in there and find Sammy dead. Because really, what other fear did Dean have? The only things in life that scared him were the things that had the power to take his brother away from him.

He had expected to go into the room to find Sam trapped under some burning beam, or passed out from the fumes. He did not expect to see Sam lying on the motel bed, parts of his skin almost completely burned off, all while being completely conscience. Sam made no move to try to save himself. He just laid there, taking all the flames that came his way.

Dean didn't have time to dwell on anything other than getting Sam out. He managed to maneuver himself around to an area that was fairly clear of flames. He wasted no time making a quick grab for his brother, ignoring the searing pain that nipped at his arms and legs as he tried to grab his brother up in his arms.

Dean had to physically drag Sam out of the motel, because Sam didn't want to leave. He struggled, scratching and weakly throwing punches at Dean, begging him to "just leave him alone". Dean ignored all of this, he just carried his brother as far away from the fire as he could, while staying close to the road for when the paramedics arrived. Finally Dean gently laid his brother down on the soft grass, still on the receiving end of extremely weak punches. Dean grabbed his brothers hands in his own, softly restraining him.

_"Sam."_

With that one word, Sam stopped struggling. His face crumbled and he said nothing, retreating into himself. Dean spoke to him quietly, while looking him over. Parts of Sammy's skin looked bad, like it had been charred almost completely off. The sight, combined with the smell of it made Dean want to throw up. But instead, he stroked his brother's singed hair. He tried to meet Sam's eyes, but it seems that Sam had passed out. Dean let out a shaky sigh, and listened to his brother's difficult breathing. He finally just laid down next to his brother and rested his head on Sam's shoulder, and waited for the sirens to sound in the air.

Dean sat in Sam's hospital room, waiting for his little brother to wake up. Sammy had been asleep for a while now, and Dean _really_ needed him to wake up. They needed to talk.

The diagnosis on Sam hadn't been too terrible. He had had some issues breathing due to his elevated Carbon Monoxide levels, so they had him on oxygen treatments. His skin had been badly burned. Some areas, mostly on his stomach and legs, had to have skin graphs done on them. There would be some scarring, but it would be fairly minimal. Sam got off pretty easy, all in all.

Dean knew it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

That didn't mean he still wasn't scared as fuck.

"I can hear you thinking from over here, Dean."

Dean's head shot up toward the sound, and just like that, everything in his world was okay again. Dean looked at his brothers green eyes and slight smile and his heart simply melted. He'd been waiting over 36 hours to see those eyes again.

"Sammy. My God. You scared the living hell out of me dude…"

Dean scooted his chair a little closer to Sam's bed, sighing heavily. Sam nodded slightly. He had seen that coming.

"I know, Dean. I'm sorry. I never wanted to put you in the situation where you had to rescue me from a fire…AGAIN… and fuck, Dean, your arms…. I'm so sorry."

Dean smiled gently at Sam's words. Sam had been practically roasted alive, yet the first thing he did was apologize for putting HIM in danger.

"Sammy it's fine. They're just small burns. 1st degree. You can get those from the sun, dude."

"You can get third degree burns from the sun, too, Dean. I mean its rare, but if you were down in the tropics and you..." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Your such a smart ass, Sam." Sam chuckled.

"You're the one that brought it up."

Dean smiled and leaned against Sam's bed from his chair, his arms crossed over each other. His smile started to fade.

"Sam you know I have to ask…"

"Don't, Dean."

"Sorry, Sam. Can't avoid this one." Sam looked down, and Dean could've sworn he saw tears glimmering in there somewhere. "Why didn't you try to get out, Sammy?"

Sam set his jaw and stared forward, finding an interesting spot on the wall to examine. Dean knew that look. He'd seen it many times before. Sam was shutting Dean out. But he couldn't this time, Dean wouldn't let him. He had been terrified when he walked into that room to find Sam just laying there on the bed, perfectly conscious, perfectly able to move, yet just sitting there, being burned alive. He just wanted to know _why. _

"Sammy… you weren't_… you know…_" Dean just couldn't say it. How was he supposed to say something like this? "Sam I know we've had a rough few months… hell kid you've had a rough life in general… I can't imagine what you went through during your time down under… It must've made my tour seem so easy… And we've lost people. Especially Bobby, Sammy, I know how you felt about him, I felt the same way. And I know this big massive pile of shit just keeps raining down on you day after day but…" Dean's voice cracked and he ran his hand over his face, trying to compose himself. "You can't just… check out on me, Sammy!"

Sam blinked up at Dean, and looked back on to his interesting spot on the wall. He listened to Dean try to pretend like he wasn't crying. He hated he ability he had to torment his brother. No one on Earth had the ability to cause Dean as much pain as Sam did. Sam usually embraced it, knowing that it meant his brother loved him that much. But right about now, Sam was hating it. He just wanted his big brother to stop crying.

"…I wasn't trying to check out on you, Dean…" Sam turned his teary eyes to meet Dean's soaked ones. "I promise you I wasn't. I'd never leave you alone in this shit hole of a world voluntarily."

Dean studied Sam's eyes, then nodded slowly. "Well than what, Sammy? Why the hell were you just laying there? You were getting burned alive, Sammy!"

"Because I…" Sam spit the words out quickly, hoping that if he just said them, they'd come out easier. But they were stuck in his throat, and he just couldn't seem to get them out.

"Sammy…?"

Sam felt Dean grab his hand, a silent encouragement for him to go on. He could do this. He could tell Dean this.

"Because I thought I was hallucinating."

The air seemed to get heavier around them as Dean gaped at him. His brother seemed to gaze off into no where, seemingly trapped in his own thoughts. He felt the hand that held his hang on just a little bit tighter when Dean spoke.

"I thought you could tell the difference?"

"Not anymore, apparently." Sam sniffed, begging Dean not to dig anymore into this. He had had enough. Sam looked up at Dean, and Dean smiled softly at him, the smile lighting up his eyes a bit. Sam blinked at him. Dean never ceased to amaze him. Things were going downhill, and fast. Yet Dean still smiled. Sam didn't even realize that he had started crying, until he found himself with a face full of big brother.

Dean had sat on the edge of his bed, and pulled Sam up into his arms. Sam chuckled through his tears. Through everything, all the wires and tubes going in or out of him, Dean managed to hold him without disturbing one of them. The thought made him smile slightly.

Sam was sick of being strong, sick of pretending these hallucinations didn't scare the fuck out of him. So he hung onto Dean, buried his face into that all too familiar jacket, and let himself be weak in front of the only person who mattered in his life anymore. He let his tears soak through Dean's jacket, feeling slightly guilty but he deep down he knew Dean wouldn't mind. He just didn't understand why he had to be so cursed. Why he always had to get the bad luck all the time. He clutched onto his brother just a little bit harder. After a few minutes, Sam felt himself be squeezed a little tighter before Dean pulled back, his green eyes meeting Sam's hazel ones. Dean brushed Sam's hair away from his forehead lightly, before giving him a lighthearted smile. And then, Dean made a promise.

"We're gonna make it through this, baby brother. And I'm never going to let no **damn **fire hurt you again. I _promise_."

And Sam stopped crying.

**So there you have it! What did ya think? Please let me know. Id be eternally grateful. :)**


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